Last week

Last week Springy made a felt jingle. You basically use embroidery thread and attach that to a small bell. Cut up some felt and then thread these on (with a needle). It's a piece of thread with a bell and then up the thread are the bits of felt piled on top of each other and you then tie it off at the other end of the thread and hang it up somewhere. It makes a great Christmas decoration. It was lovely that Springy a) had such good needle control and b) enjoyed doing it.

We've also been making finger pom poms and Springy, as of today, has a collection of four pom poms. She's given them all names and they seem to be a family of a mummy and daddy plus 2 children.

How to make a Finger Pom Pom
You use two fingers together (with a bit of a gap and don't pull the wool too tight otherwise you will cut off the circulation to the fingers) and wrap the wool around these, round and round you go with the wool. When you think you have enough wool then tie a piece around where the middle would be and then slide the pom pom off your fingers. Tie the middle section tight and then cut the ends of the wool (the loops) - et voila you have a pom pom.

Natural Dyes - colour chart

http://www.pioneerthinking.com/naturaldyes.html

Spring 2007

Spring has arrived and although we are away from home on a holiday to grandparents at the moment, here is what our Spring looks like.

First off, we are growing a bean (planted on a waxing moon) plant. Daughter has been very interested in watching it from the first shoots to when we left it the other day with about 6 leaves.

We have also grown a Triops, called Candle, from an egg. He (or she) was the only one to hatch and daughter has been enjoying feeding Candle every day. She has learned about cleaning it out (I do it but she helps by ensuring I don't catch it in the cleaning pot) and had to patiently wait before it hatched. It's a fascinating little creature (it's a type of crustacean) and it zooms about its little tank and when it finds food it gets very excited, homes in on it, grabs the food and swims on its back (a bit like a sea otter). They are a lot of responsibility so not recommended for families who won't look after them properly!

We also are using some stories and songs as a regular part of our rhythm:

Princess Spring - Enki Education
The Story of the Root Children - Sybylle Van Olfers
Pelle's New Suit - Elsa Beskow

I also ordered a bag of fleece and some mini carders. We washed the fleece by soaking in warm water and washing up liquid (Ecover) - soak and don't rub unless you want felt. We dried it and then carded it. I've tried to spin it on a drop spindle but that isn't working (well it works but I don't know how to do it right, despite some good instructions).

Daughter has also seen some spring lambs who were just a day old.

Easter is only a few days away and gifts this year are toothpaste (Weleda calendula and Green People Orange), a little knitted rabbit (homemade), a wooden orange, and some felt egg cosies (which we need to make).